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Sisters sway to Canticle of the Sun.
Earth Day 2025:
Celebrating the Beauty of the World
Words of Peggy Comfrey, CSJ, as sisters, associates, agrégées, colleagues gathered for Earth Day 2025
A recent piece in the NPR Newsletter really struck home to me as I was preparing for this celebration:
“Being an Earthling isn’t easy these days. From flash floods and devastating earthquakes to extreme heat, no matter where you are on the planet, the effects of the climate crisis are vast and real.”
We experience this reality on a daily basis and acknowledge our responsibility to do what we can on an individual, communal, and societal level to begin to turn that around. We know that Earth Day is not just a celebration, but a call to action.
On Earth Day, we take time to celebrate the beauty of the world and the gifts of creation which nourish, sustain, and reveal to us the fullness of God’s life and love. And we re-commit ourselves to doing what we can to renew the face of the earth, conscious of the generations which come after us.
We give special thanks today for the gift of the life and the mission of Pope Francis and his gift to the world in his 2015 encyclical, Laudato Si’, which continues to be an inspiration and a challenge to millions of people around the world in contemplating what it means to care for our common home.
Pope Francis began that encyclical with these words:
“Praise be to you, my Lord. In the words of this beautiful canticle, St. Francis of Assisi reminds us that our common home is like a sister with whom we share our life and a beautiful mother who opens her arms to embrace us.”
And at the very end of the encyclical, he says:
“Let us sing as we go. May our struggles and our concern for this planet never take away the joy of our hope.”
Peggy Comfrey, CSJ, greets attendees at the door.
The centerpiece of the Earth Day service, a small beach ball globe and a statue of a women.
Later in the service, Linda Boothroyd, CSJ Agrégée, shared news of a future buttery garden that will be planted outside the Motherhouse. She explained how butterflies serve as a key environmental indicators — due to their sensitivity, a small population could suggest that the surrounding environment is unbalanced, polluted. Inversly, butterflies work to strengthen the ecological health of their environment as pollinators. We will be planting a butterfly bush, as well as other butterfly-friendly plants outside the Motherhouse.